Carmelo Conforto - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
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Papers by Carmelo Conforto
Comprehensive Psychiatry, 1968
PSICOTERAPIA E SCIENZE UMANE, 2016
PSICOTERAPIA E SCIENZE UMANE, 2014
I have followed the debate with great interest, struck by the clarity of the evidence given by Ru... more I have followed the debate with great interest, struck by the clarity of the evidence given by Ruggiero and Nicolò and have been stimulated into intervening with clinical material by Pelella Mélega's contribution. I recognize that my attention has never been particularly drawn to linger on adolescent pathology, approaching more Bonfiglio's reflections on "psychoanalysis without further specifications" . This is because I have followed, in my years in practice, only a small number of adolescents, all of whom have reached me in late adolescence and whom I have welcomed in some way without surprise, because I had in mind those patients followed clinically for serious psychoses (thinking of the "schizophrenic") with ages at onset, admittance and continuation of therapy in the Clinic that were all similar. DANIEL I have been thinking about this 18 year old youth who asked me for help, anticipated by a brief telephone call from his father. I will present the brief and initial clinical descriptions regarding Daniel that directed me to reflecting on the pathology of thinking about oneself and others, or rather the incapacity to grasp the intentions and the emotional states present in the minds of others and in his own. I must point out that that which I am writing regards our first meetings, and not the two years of therapy afterwards (we always worked vis-a-vis, with weekly and then twice weekly sessions). Daniel concluded our relationship when he moved to North America to work, where he still resides. I will also add, regarding this, that it seems to me, as Winnicott observes, some therapies end where others would begin. We start to see each other at the end of summer some years ago, a fragile dazed youth, with a bottle of water in his hand that he would then abandon (or would be "abandoned of") only after some months. He says, repeating his father's words, that he suffers from "obsessions", he describes them as an irrepressible urge to masturbate frequently, accompanied by adolescent fantasies (regarding the male sex) diaphanous, nudes, almost ghosts. He admits that there isn't really a real erotic drive in him. The masturbation, often repeated, doesn't give sexual pleasure but a sort of sensation of "being in the world". 1 He can't clarify this any better, he talked to his father about it. The father replied, with indifference, that he too during adolescence had suffered from "homosexual problems", and he sent him to me. I think of the incomprehensibility that Daniel feels for the unhelpfulness of his father in trying to be in contact with his son and of the attempt to get out of the cumbersome situation by trying to drag Daniel "into a mental place that is not his own" (Borgogno, 1997) 2 . When the lad says goodbye, after the first meeting, repeating <<See you in a week's time>> , he reacts in a curious way (that is to say that it arouses my curiosity and it confuses me, just as he had, moreover, for all of the conversation): he holds his hand out to me when he is already on the landing, face and body turned the other way, without wanting to/being able to look at me, a bit like he had done during our conversation.
Casale Monferrato è un comune della provincia di Alessandria, nel Piemonte Orientale, tristemente... more Casale Monferrato è un comune della provincia di Alessandria, nel Piemonte Orientale, tristemente noto a livello nazionale e internazionale per le vicende legate all'amianto e all'alto livello di mortalità dei suoi abitanti. Nelle sue vicinanze sono presenti, infatti, numerose cave di marne argillose, che lo hanno reso per anni luogo elettivo per la produzione di cemento e, dai primi del Novecento, di eternit, fibra di cemento amianto che ha dato il nome alla multinazionale svizzera titolare dello stabilimento casalese, l'Eternit, che per oltre mezzo secolo ha rappresentato la principale risorsa economica della città.
Comprehensive Psychiatry, 1968
PSICOTERAPIA E SCIENZE UMANE, 2016
PSICOTERAPIA E SCIENZE UMANE, 2014
I have followed the debate with great interest, struck by the clarity of the evidence given by Ru... more I have followed the debate with great interest, struck by the clarity of the evidence given by Ruggiero and Nicolò and have been stimulated into intervening with clinical material by Pelella Mélega's contribution. I recognize that my attention has never been particularly drawn to linger on adolescent pathology, approaching more Bonfiglio's reflections on "psychoanalysis without further specifications" . This is because I have followed, in my years in practice, only a small number of adolescents, all of whom have reached me in late adolescence and whom I have welcomed in some way without surprise, because I had in mind those patients followed clinically for serious psychoses (thinking of the "schizophrenic") with ages at onset, admittance and continuation of therapy in the Clinic that were all similar. DANIEL I have been thinking about this 18 year old youth who asked me for help, anticipated by a brief telephone call from his father. I will present the brief and initial clinical descriptions regarding Daniel that directed me to reflecting on the pathology of thinking about oneself and others, or rather the incapacity to grasp the intentions and the emotional states present in the minds of others and in his own. I must point out that that which I am writing regards our first meetings, and not the two years of therapy afterwards (we always worked vis-a-vis, with weekly and then twice weekly sessions). Daniel concluded our relationship when he moved to North America to work, where he still resides. I will also add, regarding this, that it seems to me, as Winnicott observes, some therapies end where others would begin. We start to see each other at the end of summer some years ago, a fragile dazed youth, with a bottle of water in his hand that he would then abandon (or would be "abandoned of") only after some months. He says, repeating his father's words, that he suffers from "obsessions", he describes them as an irrepressible urge to masturbate frequently, accompanied by adolescent fantasies (regarding the male sex) diaphanous, nudes, almost ghosts. He admits that there isn't really a real erotic drive in him. The masturbation, often repeated, doesn't give sexual pleasure but a sort of sensation of "being in the world". 1 He can't clarify this any better, he talked to his father about it. The father replied, with indifference, that he too during adolescence had suffered from "homosexual problems", and he sent him to me. I think of the incomprehensibility that Daniel feels for the unhelpfulness of his father in trying to be in contact with his son and of the attempt to get out of the cumbersome situation by trying to drag Daniel "into a mental place that is not his own" (Borgogno, 1997) 2 . When the lad says goodbye, after the first meeting, repeating <<See you in a week's time>> , he reacts in a curious way (that is to say that it arouses my curiosity and it confuses me, just as he had, moreover, for all of the conversation): he holds his hand out to me when he is already on the landing, face and body turned the other way, without wanting to/being able to look at me, a bit like he had done during our conversation.
Casale Monferrato è un comune della provincia di Alessandria, nel Piemonte Orientale, tristemente... more Casale Monferrato è un comune della provincia di Alessandria, nel Piemonte Orientale, tristemente noto a livello nazionale e internazionale per le vicende legate all'amianto e all'alto livello di mortalità dei suoi abitanti. Nelle sue vicinanze sono presenti, infatti, numerose cave di marne argillose, che lo hanno reso per anni luogo elettivo per la produzione di cemento e, dai primi del Novecento, di eternit, fibra di cemento amianto che ha dato il nome alla multinazionale svizzera titolare dello stabilimento casalese, l'Eternit, che per oltre mezzo secolo ha rappresentato la principale risorsa economica della città.